Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to a bulk deliquidizer/desander coalescer vessel, and more particularly, to a bulk deliquidizer/desander coalescer vessel including a flow diverter that diverts liquid/sand/gas as it enters the vessel, slowing down the flow, reducing erosion of the processing equipment, and causing the sand to dissipate and drop out of the flow prior to gas/liquid separation.
Description of Related Art
There are a number of existing configurations and designs of deliquidizers, desanders, and coalescing filters on the market. One example is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,503,950 to Håland, which disclosed a scrubber, a column, a separator or other separation equipment, combined with a deliquidizer that is connected as a pre-separator to the fluid outlet wherein the deliquidizer functions according to a cyclone principle.
During hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”), such as in the Marcellus Shale industry, wet gas exiting the wellhead is often fed into a 2-phase or 3-phase deliquidizer coalescer separator to separate the liquid condensates from the gas. Coalescing is the process where liquid aerosols in a compressed gas/air system are forced to join together into larger droplets. These combined droplets then can be drained away by gravity. This wet gas from the wellhead can also include sand and other particles. The bulk deliquidizer/desander is comprised of a horizontal chamber containing baffle plates that are designed to entrap sand and other particles allowing them to eventually settle in a compartment in the bottom of the horizontal chamber. The wet gas can then enter into a vertical tower or a horizontal portion of the chamber that houses the vane separator. The vane separator can remove all liquids down to approximately 10 microns. The almost-dry gas then moves into the gas coalescing chamber where it is directed through a coalescing filter element. One example of a high pressure filter/separator gas chamber is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,332,010, owned by TM Industrial Supply, Inc., the Applicant of the present invention, the entirety of which is hereby incorporated in the present application. The high-pressure filter/separator utilizes Gas Flow Membrane Technology (GFM Technology®) that employs a reverse flow design through a multi-stage filtration vessel utilizing an out-to-in flow through a pleated coalescing filter.
The sand and particles within the wet gas exit the wellhead and enter into the inlet of the separator at very high pressures and/or velocities. This sand, fed at these high pressures and velocities, can eventually erode the valving, piping and other processing equipment used in the separator-type systems. Thus, a need exists to provide a separator that includes a flow diverter that diverts liquid/sand/gas from the fracked gas as it enters the horizontal chamber of the coalescer, slowing down the flow and causing the sand to dissipate and drop out of the flow prior to entering into the gas/liquid separation phase of the separator.